Hotels and Lodging

My wife, Jan, and I and our 12-year-old granddaughter, Paige, traveled independently in Scandinavia for a month in summer 2012. We made advance reservations in only three cities (Oslo, Göteborg and Bergen), where accommodations were reported to be tight and expensive.

Otherwise, wherever we found ourselves in mid afternoon, we sought out a B&B, farmstay or camping cabin that offered linens, or occasionally a smaller hotel. Local chambers of commerce, our trusty iPad and a GPS with a new Scandinavian chip offered numerous choices to investigate.

Six of us flew into London and took a cruise out of Dover in August ’12. Having never been to London, I spent quite a bit of time researching transportation.

Since I first discovered it in March 1999, I have stayed seven times at the Balmoral House Hotel (156-157 Sussex Gardens, London, W20 1UD, U.K.; phone 020 7723 7445, fax 7402 0118), my most recent stay ending June 4, 2012. In all, I’ve stayed there over 50 nights.

In response to the editor’s request for info on acceptable budget accommodations (Aug. ’12, pg. 67), I have three companies to suggest. There are no luxuries at any of their lodgings, but the locations are very good and the prices are great. I would gladly stay at any of them again.

I strongly recommend the services of Midway Motor Travel (Southerwicks, Corsham, Wiltshire, England, SN13 9NH, U.K.; phone, from the US or Canada, 800/214-8738 or, in Britain, +44 [0] 1249 71657).

by Michael Kasum, Gulfport, FL
Following our July ’11 visit to Laos (recounted in last month’s issue), my wife, Pat, and I continued our exploration of Southeast Asia with a visit to the Indonesian island of Bali.

There was a request for alternative affordable places to stay (July ’12, pg. 67), so here are several that I’ve used in Europe in recent years.

FRANCE — Hôtel Reine Mathilde à Bayeux (23 rue Larcher, 14400 Bayeux, France; phone [33] 02 31 92 08 13, fax 92 09 93), in the Normandy region. €58 (near $72) for a double room in May ’11.

Eager to explore Guatemala, my wife, Gail, and I chose Caravan Tours (Chicago, IL; 800/227-2826) for our trip, Jan. 2-11, 2012.

I noted the editor’s request for budget alternatives to hotels (July ’12, pg. 67) and assume it applies to other aspects of travel as well.

I was rather surprised to read, in the article “Riding the Rails from Vladivostok to Munich” (July ’12, pg. 46), that the subscriber’s Trans-Siberian trip cost $10,649, as, on a ’round-the-world trip, I had traveled the Trans-Mongolian route, with more and longer stops, for considerably less.

A word about Europcar and insurance — before you book your rental car, make sure to find out what the policy is if you decline their insurance. Not doing so was the first mistake my wife, JoAnn, and I made on a February-March 2012 trip to France.